Alone (Generations #3)

This third and final book in Scott Sigler’s The Generations Trilogy picks up roughly a year after the second book left off, with Em Savage still the leader of the original “Birthday Children” who fled to the planet they were engineered for—with the “Grownups” who intended to overwrite their minds largely defeated, but still in orbit. The alliance they made with the alien species already on the planet is holding, but tensions are running high. And the day is fast approaching when unknown ships will arrive to contest their existence on Omeyocan…

What I Liked:

This action-packed conclusion raises the stakes far and beyond anything seen in the first two books—with nigh-cinematic combat scenes including jungle, Aztec-inspired streets, and full-scale space battles.

At long last, readers receive the answers they’ve been waiting for throughout the previous installments. Answers regarding how humans reached Omeyocan, what drew them there, and why other species have been fighting over the planet. Lesser issues are addressed as well—including the reasoning behind the symbol-based caste system, and some attempt at explaining why the original Matilda Savage became the self-obsessed monstrosity we’ve come to know in the previous books.

I loved the concept of the null symbol. It fit in exceedingly well with the whole self-made destiny threads, and offered a powerful chosen identity image at the same time. I wish it had come into conception earlier in the series.

The ending proves somewhat satisfying—open-ended enough to allow for a possible future revisit, but leaving off with a solid sense of closure.

What Didn’t Work For Me:

Unfortunately, this reader has enjoyed the series less with each successive book. In part, because the literary efforts toward a game of information keep-away. While this felt generally well done and mysterious in the first book, the second book progressed a lot of immediate plot while holding back too many clues and tidbits about the overarching premise. The result was what felt like excessive revelation-purging in this final book.

To be honest, this book nearly lost me at the halfway point.

I realize it can be argued that everyone’s thoughts are being warped and logical thought processes are in question. But ultimately, this feels like a cop-out. The constant question of how much characters were actually making their own decisions within their own characterization became a continual point of frustration. It also worsened the sense of feeling more distant from the characters than we had in the first two books.

Minor Spoiler: The big twist cause of everything feels a lot like the premise for season 2 episode 2 of the Voltron reboot. I can’t tell you which idea came first, but I can tell you I preferred the show’s handling.

-The eventual love triangle came seemingly out of nowhere, and the romantic elements in general felt flat. After Em has been in a romantic relationship for a year, one might expect more depth to her thoughts in this area. Instead, her emotional development seems to have arrested. She spends an aggravating amount of page-time obsessing over a guy she (technically) hardly knew who has now been dead a year. It was difficult to care about whether she "loved" him more or differently than the guy she's currently in a relationship with. (He’s not coming back, and no other options better suit her among their very limited population.)

-On a similar ‘Em-is-less-sympathetic-each-book’ note, her judgmental behavior toward Spingate went on well past the point of reason. Even after she learns what’s causing the increased aggression in everyone—and she herself nearly commits murder thanks to said cause’s manipulations—she continues to treat and regard Spingate as morally inferior to herself.

-Another element that landed wrong for this reader was the portrayal of religion. The initial incorporation of ancient Aztec aesthetics, words, and vague religious elements was interesting—not something I’d seen done before. The glorifying of violence and human sacrifice fit in unsettlingly well with the premise, and had the grand added advantage of being essentially an extinct religion (and so no more a point of potential offense than the more overdone tapping of the Greek or Roman pantheon.) In this book, however, the concept is introduced of a fusion of three existing religions. The corrupt and abusive sect that Em’s progenitor came from uses leadership titles that strongly imply an inexplicable mix of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. This ended up feeling antithetical--more thrown in rather than well thought out.

The wrap-up was well tied off at most points, a strong resolution without a clear-cut “winner.” If your focus is on sci-fi tinged action, you’ve come to the right place.